Hundreds of sophisticated monitoring instruments will remain in place in the nation’s oceans, thanks to a National Science Foundation reversal of its plan to partially dismantle the system. The federal agency announced on Thursday that it is dropping its plan to remove hundreds of instruments from the Ocean Observatories Initiative program. The program encompasses more […]
A tsunami-sized backlash has stopped the Trump administration’s attempts to shut down a vast array of ocean monitoring equipment – including equipment off the central Oregon coast -- designed to study everything from coastal ecosystems to climate change.
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This story has been updated with a response from Sen. Dan Sullivan’s office on Tuesday, June 16, 2026 at 3:02 p.m. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, is among several members of Congress trying to prevent the National Science Foundation from dismantling portions of an instrument system that monitors the nation’s oceans. The National Science Foundation plans […]
The Trump administration is dismantling the Ocean Observatories Initiative — a $386 million network of 900 deep-sea sensors built to run for 30 years. Congress is calling it illegal. Scientists are calling it catastrophic. Here’s what OOI actually does, why it matters across fisheries, weather, and climate, and the fastest ways to take action right now.
Update June 18: NSF pauses OOI dismantling after Senate passes bipartisan bill. Here's what happened, what's next, and why the fight isn't over.
The Trump administration is dismantling the Ocean Observatories Initiative — a $386 million network of 900 deep-sea sensors built to run for 30 years. Congress is calling it illegal. Scientists are calling it catastrophic. Here’s what OOI actually does,…
A decision by the Trump administration to quickly dismantle a complex and massive array of underwater equipment that for 10 years has studied the ocean’s health has stunned and dismayed researchers in Newport and Corvallis. Research hubs employing hundreds of scientists are affected by the National Science Foundation’s decision.
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The upcoming loss of a deep-ocean monitoring system is triggering deep anxiety in Alaska, the nation’s top fish-producing state, where temperatures are warming twice as quickly as the global average. The National Science Foundation announced plans in May to decommission the Ocean Observatories Initiative, a nearly $368 million network of scientific instruments that tracks ocean […]
The $368 million network of instruments collecting data in both the Atlantic and Pacific has been critical to climate and ocean research.